‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Guide: Giant Beaver Taming And Use

ARK: Survival Evolve received one of the more useful animals in the 236.0 patch for the PC, which is also coming soon to the Xbox One. The Castoroides, or Giant Beaver, is a surprisingly well-rounded addition to the open-world dinosaur survival game. The following guide will help explain how to tame and use the Giant Beaver.

Where to Find the Giant Beaver

The Giant Beaver can be commonly found around the rivers and swamps of the southern region of The Island. They are most commonly found in the Southern Islets and around the Deep Island that sits around Grand Peak. The Maw, Western Approach, and the Easter Plains are also prime areas to seek the creature out.

One way to know if a Castroides is around is by spotting a dam. These spawn randomly in water areas and contain valuable resources such as wood, cementing paste, rare flowers, rare mushrooms, and silica pearls.

The animals are not naturally aggressive in the wild until you touch their dams. Doing so will make one or more Giant Beavers attack.

[Image via ARK: Survival Evolved]Taming

The taming steps for a Giant Beaver are fairly standard. It’s a traditional KO tame and will require only a handful of Tranq Darts (and slightly more Tranq Arrows) to knock out. Even at higher levels, the number of Tranq Darts required barely reaches slightly above 10, though Tranq Arrows will require significantly more.

The preferred taming food for the Giant Beaver is Galimimus Kibble (see taming guide), followed by Vegetables, and then Mejoberries. Kibble is highly recommended for high-level Beavers as it can take approximately nine hours to tame a level 100 with anything but Kibble versus approximately two hours with. That means a huge amount of fewer Narcotics will be required as well.

Refer to the taming calculators at Survive Ark or Crumplecorn for the exact amount of food needed for the level of Giant Beaver you are attempting to tame.

Note that the Beaver can be picked up by an Argentavis or Quetzal to carry back to your base to tame. This only works on PVP servers, of course.

Usage

Giant Beavers are an incredibly useful utility animal. They are the best harvesters of wood currently in ARK, even besting the Mammoth. Not only do they harvest wood and thatch at prodigious rates, but they can harvest on their own when left to wander. The large furry creatures also have a carry bonus that makes wood, thatch, and fiber weigh only 20 percent of their normal weight, and stone 50 percent of its normal weight.

The real utility though comes from the Castoroides Saddle. This allows the Giant Beaver to double as a mobile Smithy. Note that the unlock requirements for the saddle are pretty high, currently costing 50 engrams once level 65 is reached. Additionally, ARK players will need 290 Hide, 200 Fiber, 100 Metal Ingots, 180 Thatch, and 140 Cementing Paste just to craft the saddle in a Smithy.

The Beavers are surprisingly strong fighters as well. Their speed and base attack are both solid enough that they can hold their own with all but the largest carnivores in ARK: Survival Evolved. They also move even faster in water making them more than capable of getting to the underwater loot in the game.

Even wild Giant Beavers are of great use. Aside from the fact they build dams packed with useful loot, they also provide Pelt when killed. This makes them the only creature found outside of the brutally cold Whitesky Peak to do so.

Leveling

The Giant Beaver has a solid Weight stat to begin with and the carry bonuses for wood, thatch, fiber, and stone help out greatly as well. However, it is recommended to build this up even more if you plan on using the animal as a mobile smith. Speed, Stamina, and Health are also prime targets. Those that want to go for a “Battle Beaver” build will want to target Melee Damage, Health, and Stamina.

Dossier

[Image via ARK: Survival Evolved]

Wild:Castoroides is a large, mammalian herbivore that tends to live near water. Unlike other larger beaver species this one retains the chisel-shaped teeth of modern beavers. As is typical for beavers, they build dams as habitats, but the larger creatures on the island have a tendency to trample them. As a result, finding unsullied dams in the wild is quite rare.

Domesticated: The value of a tamed Castoroides is obvious from its physiology. The creature naturally gathers wood extremely efficiently, far more than most species on the island. It’s not the strongest creature, so it can only carry limited amounts, but it is a natural lumberjack!

Known Information:Castoroides itself doesn’t seem to realize how dangerous the island is. I don’t know if it’s simply too dumb to notice the dangers, or if it just doesn’t care, but Castoroides happily goes about its day playing in the water and gnawing on wood.